As Long As You Love Me
by willow faerie
Summary: Voldemort has won the war. Draco and Hermione are fugitives on the run. This was a song fic written for the Draco and Hermione love song challenge.


This is a song fic for _As Long as You Love Me_ by the Backstreet Boys. It was written for the Hermione/Draco Love Song challenge on AFF.

**Song: As Long as You Love Me**

**By: The Backstreet Boys**

**Year: 1997**

**Warning: Angst**

As Long As You Love Me

"I suppose if our days are really numbered." Draco wrapped his great black coat around him and looked out the window, his breath making vapor trails "Then we should live--"

"Everyday to the fullest!" Hermione rasped softly, finishing his sentence for him.

She had been doing that a lot lately. It scared her, like she could see inside his soul. Lying back on the lumpy mattress, she was cold, pulling the itchy wool blankets up around her, scrunching her pillow up underneath her head.

Draco sat on the window seat, watching the snow fall outside, the dreary winter sky glaring ominously behind him. He looked hard and mean. Life on the run had done that to him. He also looked malnourished, his clothes almost hanging off his tall frame. Now dressed in jeans, a gray sweatshirt and sneakers, he looked like a Muggle. His hair had grown somewhat long and shaggy about the ears and he was always swiping it out of his eyes, combing it back with his fingers. He even had some blond razor stubble around his chin. It made him look older than twenty.

Hermione knew she didn't fare much better. Her thin frame was lost inside the thick folds of her two wool sweaters and her coat. She always wore woolen gloves with the fingers cut out of them because her hands were like ice and a scarf around her neck. Unable to go to the saloon, her hair was long and out of control, hanging wildly down her back, so she always tied it back in a sloppy braid.

Draco would tease her about it, tugging her hair lightly, telling her it probably weighed more than she did. He was kind about it though. He was nothing like the boy she had known at school. He looked out for her, bringing her food, finding them a place to hide out for a few days. He found this empty farmhouse they were staying in now.

She had no idea how he stumbled across it. The tiny brick structure was in middle of nowhere, out in the windswept Shropshire countryside. There was practically no insulation, and they had to use a wood-burning stove for warmth, which they only could light at night, so no one would see the smoke. They couldn't use magic, since it could be traced. Yet Hermione liked the house. It was quiet and clean and far from the wizarding crowd. There was a cozy bedroom on the second floor with an old-fashioned wrought iron bed that squeaked when anyone sat down upon it. It made Hermione feel nostalgic.

Earlier that afternoon, Draco had brought her some fish and chips for lunch, his touch making her hands tremble when he handed it to her. She knew he had transfigured old newspaper into Muggle money to buy the fish, but she didn't say anything. Yes it was fraud, and yes it would put Voldemort's henchman on their trail, but she didn't care anymore. After all, they were starving. They had to eat. And as for Voldemort, they would just keep moving, like they always did. They were always one step ahead of him. Deep down she knew though, he would eventually catch up with them.

Draco jumped down from the window seat and slipped over to the bed, crawling up on the squeaky mattress. "I need to tell you something." His hard gray eyes seemed to look right through her and his lips were pressed together with concern. He always seemed to be watching her as if she might disappear any second.

Hermione lifted the covers to welcome him inside her bed, pulling him into her warm embrace so they could cuddle, facing each other. "You know I'm here for you." Gently she reached up and brushed his long blond bangs out of his eyes.

For a moment he sighed, then gave her a grim smile. "How do I say this? I don't know where to begin. You know I'm alone now in the world."

Hermione nodded. Yes she knew. She had seen his parents die. She also knew she was love with him. She hadn't told him. She was almost afraid that it might scare him away. He was all she had left now. Her friends would have told her she was nuts for falling in love Draco Malfoy, but she couldn't help herself.

During the final battle, Voldemort had slaughtered everybody. He had been vicious about it too, making sure every single one of her friends, Harry, Ron, and all the members of the Order of the Phoenix suffered agonizing deaths. It was horrible, a carnage like she had never imagined. Voldemort had then turned on some of his own followers, like the Malfoys, torturing them to death with the Crucio, calling them traitors.

Only Draco had gotten away, hiding out. He had grabbed Hermione's hand, Apparating her away in just a nick of time. She had never understood exactly why he had saved her, but he did. Maybe he had been just sick of all the death surrounding them.

At first they barely had talked to each other, both of them too shell-shocked to even speak. Draco walked around with that dark-eyed hollow look. He had seen enough horror to last a lifetime. Hermione had been plagued with guilt, feeling like she should never have survived when everyone else was massacred.

Days went by, then months and they had no one but each other. They were just trying to survive. Yet a wall had stood between them.

That is until winter came along and they found themselves freezing one night in a beat up old van in a junkyard. They had clung to each other, trying to stay warm. Then Draco kissed her, his lips cold. She teased him about it.

It felt like the whole world had turned upside-down. She could feel tiny tremors pulsating through her body, awakening feelings she thought were long dead.

A few nights later they made love in an abandoned lodge, sleeping together, rolled up in blankets by the fireplace. Hermione could still remember him looking down on her, his skin bathed in golden light. She had known then that she was falling for him and she hoped he felt the same.

Now Draco looked glassy-eyed, his body close to hers. He took her hand and kissed it, squeezing it tight. "My father would be rolling in his grave." He chuckled, "To see me with a Muggle-born girl. But I don't care about that. Indeed, I don't care about anything. I just want you with me. I love you, Hermione."

Hermione didn't know what to say, tears coming to her eyes, a warm tingly sensation rushing beneath her skin. She was so happy. "I love you too," she whispered.

Draco kissed her mouth, her eyes, her nose, everywhere. He looked happier then she had seen him in months. Yet a hint of sadness was still mirrored in his eyes.

Hermione knew what it was; it was the veil of death that surrounded them. They rarely spoke of it, but deep down, they both knew it was there. It was the knowledge that someday, somehow, Voldemort would inevitably kill them. They could only run so long before the evil Dark Lord caught up with them.

They had no future. So they would never marry, never have children and never grow old together. Hell, Hermione couldn't even introduce him to her parents, because she had hidden them away. All they had really was the present.

Hermione touched his hand, letting her fingers move up his wrist. On his forearm was a nasty burn where he had seared off his own dark mark with a red-hot iron. She could still remember his scream when he did it.

Draco saw what she was looking at, and turned away guiltily. "I can't believe you love me. I've done such horrible things. I tried to kill Dumbledore."

Hermione grabbed his chin, turning his face to look at him. "But you didn't. You aren't a killer! And I don't care about the rest! I tried to stop what I was feeling… to bury it and hide it, but it's still there. Why…because you are a good man. And I don't care about your history. I don't care about what you did. All I care about… is what is happening now."

Draco hugged her, his arms holding her tight.

Hermione thought she might burst, tears running down her cheeks. "So as long you love me."

"I do." His gaze never wavered. He was clutching both her hands as if they were making a covenant, curled up in the bed.

"And even though our days are numbered."

Draco shook his head. "I wish they weren't."

"Then I don't care that you were once a Death Eater." Lovingly she kissed him.

"And I don't care if you're muggle born or where you're from."

"Or what you did."

"As long as you love me."

.

.

.

.

.

……………………………………………………………………………………………

As Long as You Love Me by the BackStreet Boys 1997

As long as you love me

Although loneliness always has been a friend of mine

I'm leaving my life in your hands

People say that I'm crazy and that I'm blind

Risking it all in glance

How you got me blind is all a mystery

I can't get you out of my head

Don't care what is written in your history

As long as you're here with me

I don't care who you are

Where you're from

What you did

As long as you love me

Who you are

Where you're from

Don't care what you did

As long as you love me

Every little thing that you have said and done

Feels like it's deep within me

Doesn't really matter if you're on the run

It seems like we were meant to be

I don't care who you are

Where you're from

What you did

As long as you love me

Who you are

Where you're from

Don't care what you did

As long as you love me

I've tried to hide it so that no one knows

But I guess it shows

When you look into my eyes

What you did and where your coming from

I don't care, as long as you love me, baby.

I don't care who you are

Where you're from

What you did

As long as you love me

Who you are

Where you're from

Don't care what you did

As long as you love me

.


End file.
